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Aeolian Church - Heortland


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Can anyone tell me a little more about the Aeolian Church’s magic and how to play it?

I just started my RQ2 campaign and it’s in Heortland. Jansholm is the base city with Aelbreht as the Bishop of Jansholm living in the Cathedral to St Elmal. If there’s a bishop and a cathedral, I’d like to introduce more of its flavor since they seem pretty dominant. After reading Tradetalk 12 and the GtG, I gather the Aeolian Church follows the Creator or Invisible God but accepts some of the Orlanthi pantheon as manifestations. (I don’t know if I got that right).

But unlike the RQ2 cult’s that I’m used to,  those using battle and rune magic, the Aeolian church hierarchy uses sorcery, right? (If so, FWIW I’ll probably integrate RQ6’s sorcery for them.). Am I off base here or kind of on target?
 

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Oh my, you're using my 22 years old RQ3-based stuff. Yes, the Aeolians are a henotheist sect of Malkionism that treat Orlanthi deities like ascended masters.

Biggest problem here: there are no rules in RQ2 for western sorcery. Even the Mostali in Griffiin Mountain use Battle Magic.

I think that it remains canon that the knights of St Elmal get their armor and weapons boosted by magic, magic that lasts for the day or even for the campaign.

In RQ2 spell terms, the knights could use Shield and Extend, or have it used on them. They are elite horse riding fighters with special training/experience against trolls and chaos.

Bishops are references to the Late Roman Empire/Anglo-Saxon England flavor christianity I used for that write-up, in keeping with the contemporary efforts to flesh out Malkionism. That old expression of christianity had no parish priests, and episkopoi were required for baptisms and similar practices.

Malkioni terminology changed - knights are now "Men-of-all", and bishops would now be known by other titles like e.g. Watcher. I used parallels to the Henotheist sect of Otkorion in my terminology, and I notice that Surantyr now is called High Priest.

More later, have to go right now.
 

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There's more material in the HeroQuest 1.0 book but that has been superseded by the Guide.

The big change is the de-emphasis of the Aeolians as a church.  Instead it would be a philosophy believed by the Wizards of Heortland.  The ordinary Heortlanders don't participate in the philosophy of their intellectuals and are quite happy to take their word for it on the existence of the Invisible God (in pretty much the same way you or I am prepared to accept an astronomer's statement about the Big Bang).  Unlike other Malkioni nations, the Wizards are quite happy with the common worship of the Gods.

As for the sorcery rules, well, the wizards and their acolytes use sorcery.  The best rules will probably come out in the upcoming RuneQuest: Glorantha

 

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The Aeolians are an urban minority in Jansholm - an ethnic minority, as most have Esvulari ancestry (there ought to be inter-marriages within the craft guilds across the religious divide, and the military order will also recruit outside of the philosophy). They are strong in the craft guilds, as guild magic is likely to be sorcery aka alchemy - although it might be said that quite a few crafts that rely on bodies of non-physical knowledge are likely to feature a significant portion of Lhankor Mhy worshippers in Orlanthi cities. They also have the military order of St Elmal, and take a role that would be covered by Sun Dome Templars elsewhere, but with mounted fighters rather than hoplites. Outside of the city, there may be an occasional manor (aka fortified stead) operated by a minor Aeolian noble, but actual rural Aeolians are found only in southern Heortland. In the north, they fill specialist roles - also as bureaucrats in the Godking's administration (what's left of that after 1616). They tend to be somewhat literate.

Aeolians are Mostly Harmless. They shun sacrifice of live animals, offering baked goods in animal shape instead. They are free to join Orlanthi cults as lay members, and may advance to higher forms of initiation. They tend to be less rowdy and emotional than their Orlanthi contemporaries, but they organize well, and a coopetative of Aeolians can be quite ruthless and convincing. Their popularity isn't that good in places dominantly inhabited by normal Heortlings because of some of Belintar's Esvulari governor-kings who stepped down hard on second-amendment-like Orlanthi traditions like maintaining clan feuds, cattle raiding and similar disruptive activities. But they are useful in the towns where they provide a significant portion of specialized craftsfolk, contributing in a major way to the town's resources. In my Glorantha there is an Aeolian community in Wilmskirk, too, specialist crafters imported by Wilms to make sure that there were the necessary tools available for the new times in Sartar's kingdom. Would you trust an ordinary Orlanthi to handle technology on loan by the dwarves?

Aeolian wizards and hedge wizards (like guild craftspeople or men-of-all) use sorcery. Not necessarily exclusively, especially in the case of men-of-all and guild magicians. They have grimoires with special spells that cover runes shared by the Orlanthi. Their spells often are similar to Orlanthi magic, but with some twists, but they also have access to the magics that came with the Abiding Book that was brought to them by the God Learners.

 

A short note about the history of the Aeolian Church in Glorantha publications:

Those Tradetalk texts were the result of the first effort to describe Aeolians living alongside Orlanthi. The notion of sorcery users in Orlanthi cities was about as popular when I presented it around 1994 as were Lunar cultists inside the Sartarite tribes (regarded by most people as a no-go area despite official information about Blackmor).

I wrote up the first version of the Aeolian Church as an attempt to explore the combinations of pagan Orlanthi and monotheist Malkioni societies. These were labeled "Stygian" (Greek for Darkness-related) in the publications of that time if they mentioned them at all (Gods of Glorantha, Genertela: Crucible of the Hero Wars). Parallel to my RQ3-oriented exploration David Hall wrote the Aeolian faction for the How The West Was One freeform game, which promoted the theme of bishops and churches in a big way. I also created a number of henotheist, non-darkness sects for Ralios for the Freeform Rise of Ralios, like "Aetheric church of Galin" or "Chthonic Church of Estali", and exchanged ideas with Nikk Effingham about his Henotheist Church of Otkorion, carefully avoiding the Arkat/illumination issue that came with the Stygian write-up.

I remained true to Aeolian Heortland during the RQ4:AiG playtesting in the mid-nineties, and wrote up and played in a mixed Orlanthi-Aeolian community of Jaransbyrig, located in the triangle between Jansholm, Backford and Sklar on the plateau - a rural market town for the plateau.

When Hero Wars came along, other authors picked up on the existence of the Aeolians and provided their own interpretations (Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars, Thunder Rebels, HeroQuest 1st Edition). The Aeolians became a showcase why the idea of misapplied worship wasn't that playable. Still, their mentions in Men of the Sea or Dragon Pass:Land of Thunder should be pretty uncontroversial and useable.

The best canonical information on the history of the Aeolians in Kethaeala is found in History of the Heortling Peoples, often hidden in the events described from the Hendriking point of view.

I am fairly confident that the upcoming RuneQuest:Glorantha will have rules that work for Aeolian characters, though I don't expect them to receive much (if any) mention in a 200 pages rulesbook for a simulationist game like RuneQuest.

Edited by Joerg
Clarification Aeolians - Esvulari
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1 hour ago, Joerg said:

When Hero Wars came along, other authors picked up on the existence of the Aeolians and provided their own interpretations (Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars, Thunder Rebels, HeroQuest 1st Edition).

Mark's exploration of the Esvulari in HeroQuest Voices, by way of the 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' pastiche, is still one of my favourite contributions to Glorantha. Absolute genius. (Though perhaps the nuances are more resonant among those of us with a parochial Anglican education.)

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2 hours ago, Joerg said:

I am fairly confident that the upcoming RuneQuest:Glorantha will have rules that work for Aeolian characters, though I don't expect them to receive much (if any) mention in a 200 pages rulesbook for a simulationist game like RuneQuest.

Yes, the new RQ features non-toad sucky sorcery rules, which will fit quite nicely with what we know of the Aeolians!

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Thanks everyone. Back when i played RQ2 in the 80s, we never really left Sartar or Prax. Going into Heortland, well, just wasnt familiar with it.

@Joerg Very nice details. i'll definitely flesh out my campaign with it. I wasnt sure how to portray these individuals. 

@metcalph i'll be checking out HQ1... didnt even think to look there.

 

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 Just want to thank everyone who piped in and supplied information.

 From a game master viewpoint  , I know there always going to be at least one player who going to want to play a sorcerer , and having it so the other player should want to lynch any sorcerer does not make for good game play.

 Also a Sorcerer would be a valuable asset for the ruling class, even if the peasant distrust them. And rulers tend to find a way to justify having something around, even if the Priests consider it a sin( Like Crossbows in Medieval times)

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13 hours ago, MOB said:

Yes, the new RQ features non-toad sucky sorcery rules, which will fit quite nicely with what we know of the Aeolians!

The idea of non-toad sucky sorcery is quite appealing. The RQ3 sorcery rules had their charm, but they were very difficult to use in play and had a very specific flavor to them, one that didn't seem to fit a lot of things (not just Glorantha). The RQ6 sorcery rules are a lot more configurable and I've had a lot of use from them in a non-Gloranthan game (Shores of Korantia), but again they don't inherently have much to do with runes.

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Just now, bturner said:

The idea of non-toad sucky sorcery is quite appealing. The RQ3 sorcery rules had their charm, but they were very difficult to use in play and had a very specific flavor to them, one that didn't seem to fit a lot of things (not just Glorantha). The RQ6 sorcery rules are a lot more configurable and I've had a lot of use from them in a non-Gloranthan game (Shores of Korantia), but again they don't inherently have much to do with runes.

Runes are an inherent part of the new sorcery rules!

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A few notes on the Esvularings (Aeolians):

BACKGROUND INFO
First a few facts. There are about 100,000 Esvulari people in Kethaela. About 30,000 of them are in Bandori County and Marcher County, where they make up about 50% of the population. Another 60,000 of them are in what used to be the Kingdom of Malkonwal, where they made up only about 20% of the population. The remaining 10,000 are scattered in the County of the Isles, in God Forgot, the Left Arm Islands, Hendrikiland, and in Nochet. Lets say there are about 1500 in Nochet.
The most important settlements of the Esvularings are Mount Passant and Refuge. Durengard, Vizel, and Leskos are also significant urban centers for the Esvularings.
The Guide - always our first source - describes them as such:
The Esvularings were once atheists like the folk of God Forgot, but have embraced a unique henotheist variation of Malkionism called Aeolism, which holds that the Orlanthi gods are emanations of the Invisible God. They worship the Invisible God, but heartily participate in the Orlanthi rites as well. [Page 247]
 
In the Second Age, the God Learners described the Esvularings as:
"descendants of the folk of New Malkonwal too sinful to be taken to Solace with Malkion's sacrifice, but have the temerity to claim that Malkion abandoned them. They were once foolish atheists and are now little more than idolators who venerate Worlath as an emanation of Makan and even claim Makan sanctified the god through the deeds of their founder Aeol. They are a people temperamentally incapable of conviction or strong faith. However, they do not offer blood sacrifice to gods and view that as abhorrent. They are ruled by their Talari and pay tribute to the Hendriking kings, but do not follow their laws."
In the later Second Age, the Esvularings were ruled by the Zistorites of the Clanking City. This radical materialist and atheist movement sought to build the Divine Automaton to transmute Creation. Many Esvularings embraced worship of the Machine God, until the Clanking City was destroyed and cursed in 917. 
The Esvularings were directly ruled by the Hendriki from 917 to 1337.
 
RELIGION
The Esvularings worship the Invisible God as the supreme Creator, He is the Source, the Egg of Wonder, the One. He is sometimes depicted as an elderly god with thirteen (eight powers plus five elements) heads and four arms. He holds no weapons, but instead a measuring stick, a book, and string of eyes. He is crowned.
The Invisible God is viewed as too remote and too unapproachable to directly worship. Instead, the Esvularings worship Orlanth, Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, and Eurmal as personifications/emanations of the Creator. Of these, Orlanth is most important. These gods have consorts who are worshiped in combination with them.  
Much of Esvularing philosophy focuses on the series of emanations from the Invisible God to the Cosmic Court down to the gods and then down to mortals. The wars of the gods are viewed as part of the ongoing process of creation until the Unholy Trio rebel against creation and bring Chaos to destroy the universe. The cosmos is saved by the Lightbringers' Quest.
Aeol is the founder, a sage (note - the name Aeol might be a title or a description!) and a (semi?) divine being who composed the verses that form the basis of Aeolianism. These verses were first written down in the First Age, but then were provided with copious amounts of commentary under God Learner influence, that brought Aeolianism within the broad range of Malkioni philosophy (albeit in the outer limits). 
Malkion is acknowledged by the Aeolians as a prophet preceding Aeol who taught Aeol the revealed truth of the Invisible God. Some God Learners identified Aeol with Malkion.
The Aeolians have only three castes: noble (talar); advisor (the priestly families); and free (commoner). These castes are endogamous.  They do not practice caste mobility, but leaders from the noble and advisor castes are chosen by the free commoners.  
The priestly caste performs the rites and ceremonies for the community. Although they are called priests, they are in fact sorcerers.
 
GOVERNMENT
The Esvularing a tribal confederacy of chieftains called talars chosen by the local commoners from the noble families. The chieftains serve as military leaders and judges, and are roughly equivalent to Heortling chiefs. 
There is no Esvularing king. Instead the talars have annual councils in Mount Passant and Refuge where they resolve disputes between each other.
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5 minutes ago, Jeff said:

A few notes on the Esvularings (Aeolians):

BACKGROUND INFO
First a few facts. There are about 100,000 Esvulari people in Kethaela. [,,,] The remaining 10,000 are scattered in the County of the Isles, in God Forgot, the Left Arm Islands, Hendrikiland, and in Nochet. Lets say there are about 1500 in Nochet.

The two most important cities of or adjacent to Hendrikiland are Karse and Jansholm. Let's say of the remaining 8500 Esvulari there are some 2500 in Hendrikiland, that gives us urban populations in each of these cities of about 800.

 

16 minutes ago, Jeff said:

RELIGION

 

The Esvularings worship the Invisible God as the supreme Creator, He is the Source, the Egg of Wonder, the One. He is sometimes depicted as an elderly god with thirteen (eight powers plus five elements) heads and four arms. He holds no weapons, but instead a measuring stick, a book, and string of eyes. He is crowned.
The Invisible God is viewed as too remote and too unapproachable to directly worship. Instead, the Esvularings worship Orlanth, Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, and Eurmal as personifications/emanations of the Creator. Of these, Orlanth is most important. These gods have consorts who are worshiped in combination with them.  
Much of Esvularing philosophy focuses on the series of emanations from the Invisible God to the Cosmic Court down to the gods and then down to mortals. The wars of the gods are viewed as part of the ongoing process of creation until the Unholy Trio rebel against creation and bring Chaos to destroy the universe. The cosmos is saved by the Lightbringers' Quest.

I am a bit curious about the depiction of an elderly god with thirteen heads wearing a crown. Do we get to see all thirteen heads in the same depiction, or do we get to see a series of depictions of the same god wearing different faces while performing his mythical feats? Managing 7 heads in one depiction (like the Arkat seat occupied by the Alangellia in the Guide p.377) is already hard, twice as many will look quite strange.

18 minutes ago, Jeff said:

Aeol is the founder, a sage (note - the name Aeol might be a title or a description!) and a (semi?) divine being who composed the verses that form the basis of Aeolianism. These verses were first written down in the First Age, but then were provided with copious amounts of commentary under God Learner influence, that brought Aeolianism within the broad range of Malkioni philosophy (albeit in the outer limits). 

Malkion is acknowledged by the Aeolians as a prophet preceding Aeol who taught Aeol the revealed truth of the Invisible God. Some God Learners identified Aeol with Malkion.
 
 

As far as I am concerned, "Aeolus" is a transliteration of an ancient Gloranthan language (Western?) to latinized Greek, much like the term "Stygian". I believe it to mean "(Speaker for the) Wind", a title or nom-de-guerre of the founder. Since we don't call them saints any more, the ascended master who made a cultural religion out of the concept, some time around the Dawn (possibly already in the Silver Age).

Given that Malkion was preceded by Malkion, that God Learner identification with Aeol does make some sense while simultaneously keeping an extra position for Malkion.

19 minutes ago, Jeff said:

The Aeolians have only three castes: noble (talar); advisor (the priestly families); and free (commoner). These castes are endogamous.  They do not practice caste mobility, but leaders from the noble and advisor castes are chosen by the free commoners.  

The priestly caste performs the rites and ceremonies for the community. Although they are called priests, they are in fact sorcerers.

When you write that the castes are endogamous, what does this mean for offspring of marriages/sexual relationships outside of the Aeolian community? Do they have adoption rites for outsiders/converts? Do they excommunicate instead?

Does caste membership influence their choice of occupation, or is it possible to find merchants of the noble, advisor and freeman castes? Crafters? Warriors? Street sweepers (echoes of Dara Happan Avivath, a proud Yelmic noble)?

What type of magic do the commoners have access to? Does the absence of a warrior caste mean that every Aeolian is a (potential) warrior? (The Orlanthi influence isn't exactly fixated on non-combatant leaders or magicians...) Does the concept of the Men-of-all spread by the Hrestoli (including all the God Learner brands of Malkionism), formerly known as knight (mounted warrior with some minor magical ability) mean anything to the Esvulari, or are all of their castes a bit men-of-all?

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 19.02.2016 г. at 3:41 PM, Joerg said:

I am a bit curious about the depiction of an elderly god with thirteen heads wearing a crown. Do we get to see all thirteen heads in the same depiction, or do we get to see a series of depictions of the same god wearing different faces while performing his mythical feats? Managing 7 heads in one depiction (like the Arkat seat occupied by the Alangellia in the Guide p.377) is already hard, twice as many will look quite strange.

Joerg, let me introduce you to the absolute brilliance that is Tibetan religious art:

KIe30Kd.jpg

Also I have a sneaking suspicion there's a chance I end up having to draw that guy, so we'll how that will turn out!

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12 minutes ago, TRose said:

 So how do Orthodox Orlanthi view Aeolians? If an Aeolian Sorcerer showed up in Sartar or Pavis Would they be seen as some one with strange beliefs but acceptable  or a heretic to be burned at the Stake?

They would see them as being strange and weird.  Their worship of the Gods makes them tolerable compared with other Malkiioni and so they would be like worshippers of Argan Argar, Maran Gor or Kolat.

 

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34 minutes ago, TRose said:

 So how do Orthodox Orlanthi view Aeolians? If an Aeolian Sorcerer showed up in Sartar or Pavis Would they be seen as some one with strange beliefs but acceptable  or a heretic to be burned at the Stake?

Depends on when and where the rural orthodox weirdos packed up and left Heortland, and for what reasons. If their clans were formed from people under pressure of emboldened Esvulari after Belintar's ascension, the reaction will be hostile.

In the Sartarite cities, contact with Aeolians will be quite common. Reception may range from warm for trade partners to cold for being uptight snobs.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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The Esvularing are viewed by other Orlanthi as people who follow a strange school of thought and have strange traditions. They are not heretics (Theyalan polytheism doesn't really have the concept of heresy or orthodoxy since every temple tends to have a different subcult, a different associated god, etc - there's a awful lot of diversity there). Of course, they are clannish about their magic secrets - as are most other Orlanthi. 

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Sounds great. I'm eager for anything regarding the new 'ancient-flavoured' Malkioni

Edited by Mankcam

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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 Glad to hear that. One problem in Glorantha is keeping half the party from trying to kill the other half one the first mission, unless you force the players into a set mode. And there almost always somebody that wants to play a sorcerer . So I now just nudge the would be Sorceror toward the Aeolains and the Orthodox Orlanthi are from allied clans/trading partners.

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  • 3 months later...

I am very eager to see what is done with the new Rune based sorcery in RQ 6  ( I think I must have missed RQ 4 and 5 somehow, lol).

I don't think there is such a thing as an "orthodox Orlanthi".  I mean... my tribe are the Orthodoxy, surely... I mean we have those Dinacoli with their awful Brangbane ghoul lineage, then the weird Colymar and their bizarre mating with swans and foxes, and that's just our neighbours (is it any wonder we raid them?) About a third of Orlanthi love dragonewts and another third hate them etc.

Now obviously there have been efforts to codify Orlanth worship into a more organised religion, with really large temples and high priests and increased centralization, but this is more to satisfy the appetites of priests and kings than anything else.  Your classic example of this is Lokamayadon.  Orlanthi DON'T respond well to being ordered about.  Nobody can make you do anything... so the teaching goes.  Now someday there may be Kings in Sartar and the Heortlands again, and Orlanth help us that he doesn't try to make us do things.  I mean don't get me wrong, an Orlanthi tyrant's boot is better than a Lunar boot anyday, but I'd rather not have boot for dinner all the same... unless it has been a notably bad harvest, in which case... you make do.

Now to the point of the Aeolian Church.  The folk of Hendrikiland obviously have their reasons for wanting to emulate the Rokari who have shown up.  Now obviously the Rokari have unusual magic, but they can't be sorcerors because they have this Invisible God they worship, and that they are always trying to get us to worship.  But Saint Aeol had this bright idea, that Orlanth is Air, and you can't see air (even less when he has the sandals of darkness on), so Orlanth must be their Invisible God.

So the benefits are that we get to copy their knights and their book learning, but we keep our Orlanth and our identity, and we make their ways our ways.  It is a bit like how the Sikhs formed as a result of the conflict between Islam and Hinduism (though the Muslims did turn around and slaughter them subsequently because they still weren't sufficiently "of the book".) 

The thing is that an Aeolian is not a sorcerer... they are a weird sub-sect of Orlanth...  and probably less galling than those tongue splitting dragonewt lovers, or those troll loving Kitori...(Bleaugh... body modifiers and racial out-breeders... this is what happens when you live so close to the Chaos on the Syphon River I tell you)  And you must admit that the addition of elite heavy cavalry thane-knights has been good for Jansholm.  The Storms know we need all the help we can get with the Lunars, so who cares if they think the Invisible God is actually Orlanth.

Now everyone knows that Delecti is a sorceror... he lives in a swamp surrounded by the undead and does weird forgotten magic.  And we all know that the folk of God forgot are pretty suspicious, but we all know they really worship Luck.  So let them cast their oracle dice and go to their casino and pretend they are atheists.  If you ask me, the real danger of sorcery comes from those Lhankorings and their book learning into things that goodly folk were never mean't to know, obscene mysteries, unspeakable revelations, knowledge about chaos... how many are secret Thanatari (spit!)... now THAT'S sorcery !  

 

 

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2 hours ago, Darius West said:

The thing is that an Aeolian is not a sorcerer... they are a weird sub-sect of Orlanth...  

Not exactly. Aeolism is a henotheist variation of Malkionism, which holds that the Orlanthi gods are emanations of the Invisible God. They worship the Invisible God as the Supreme Creator, but heartily participate in Orlanthi rites as well.

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Spoken like a true Lhankoring M Helsdon.  I am sure your dissertation on Malkioni Theology was well received by your peers in Jonstown, however the ignorant masses are likely to find themselves at odds with hair-splitting differentiations and are far more interested in whether someone needs to be knocked on the head or not.  I am sure that henotheism is a thing amongst the chicken hsunchen, in fact I heard that they worship the local  rooster in the village of Weis, because he is a nasty bastard and must be placated or he will peck your damned eyes out.  

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